President Obama is discussing potential fixes for his health care law with lawmakers, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday.

Obama discussing insurance cancellation fixes with lawmakers

By Jennifer Epstein

11/13/13 02:01 PM EST

President Obama is discussing potential fixes for his health care law with lawmakers in addition to asking his aides to come up with a way to help Americans whose insurance plans are being cancelled keep their coverage, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday.

"The president does want to and is discussing with lawmakers the way we can make improvements," Carney said, leaving open the possibility of some kind of legislative fix in addition to administration-based action.

On an administrative fix, "you can expect a decision from [Obama] and an announcement from him sooner rather than later," the press secretary said, though he wouldn't commit to whether it would come before the scheduled Friday vote on a House Republican bill to fix the cancellations problem.

Obama doesn't support that bill, which some Democrats have said they are leaning toward supporting. "Intentionally or not the bill would not just [address] the problem that we discussed with cancellation notices," Carney said, because it would also "allow insurers to sell new plans that were substandard … and would thereby potentially undermine the essential promise of the Affordable Care Act."